Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)

Los Angeles city firefighters battle a massive fire at a seven-story downtown apartment complex under construction in Los Angeles, California December 8, 2014. Over 250 firefighters battle the early morning blaze which shutdown two major freeways the Los Angeles Fire Department and California Highway Patrol said. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Reuters)

“Muhammed’s work has received many international awards, among others Breaking News Pulitzer Prize of 2005 for covering war in Iraq, POYI, Picture of the year 2007, of Saudi Arabia of the Annual Muslim pilgrimage, best Multimedia of the Annual Israeli photo contest of 2007, honorable mention Atlanta photojournalism seminar of 2008 and photo of the year of the Annual Israeli photo contest of 2008 with two first prizes and two second prizes in different categories, two prizes in the Atlanta photojournalism seminar of 2009, 6 prizes in the Annual Israeli photo contest of 2009”. – Associated Press

The driver of a Maerlitram (fairy tram), dressed as a Santa Claus, walks past a car which crashed into the tram in Zurich, Switzerland December 7, 2017. (Photo by Angelika Gruber/Reuters)

A classmate of Palestinian student Lian Al Shaer, 10, who was killed in recent Israel-Gaza fighting, reacts to Al Shaer's picture as a new school year begins, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 29, 2022. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A Palestinian man performs fire breathing on the beach in Gaza City on 02 September 2022. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Children play with the waves at the Malecon in Havana, on September 29, 2022, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Authorities were slowly restoring electricity in Cuba following a power outage in the country caused by Hurricane Ian, which killed two people and left widespread damage. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP Photo)

A mourner reacts as bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes lie at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)